SYRACUSE — Knowing she won’t be the only one facing this battle, Shannon Johnson is taking her story to Washington D.C. to make sure others will get the help she has needed.

Shannon, a 14-year-old Syracuse resident, is going to the nation’s capital with her mother this month, in support of a program established to connect patients with donor matches, known as Be The Match.

After the young woman found bruises all over her body in 2008, she was diagnosed with with leukemia and went through seven months of chemotherapy.

After the treatments, she went into remission and returned to school, but when her cancer returned a year later, “her best and only chance for a cure” was a bone marrow or cord blood transplant, according to a press release.

Thousands are saved by such transplants, and continued federal support is the focus of the D.C. visit.

Be The Match also sponsors a registry of potential donors. For more information, visit BeTheMatch.org/Advocacy.